The Greeks sure love their vampires, part 4: Sarkomenos

Quick reminder

From now until Jan 7th, watch out for the Callicantzaros.

The Greeks sure love their vampires

There are a lot of vampires in Greek folklore. In fact, where we have one name for undead creatures who inhabit corpses and suck the blood of the living, they have a crapload of them. I’ll feature one of them today, the sarkomenos, who have a cool name.

Sarkomenos

If you happen to be on either the island of Crete or the island of Rhodes (which is different than Rhode Island), watch out for the vampires called “sarkomenos”. Their name means ‘the fleshy ones,’ so maybe they’re vampires who played too many video games and ate too many potato chips while they were alive.

Bonus fact (because the info on sarkomenos is slim)

In Greek folklore, all kids born on December 25 are vampires as a punishment to their mothers for conceiving on the same day as the Virgin Mary.

Sources

The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters
by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Scary cute, or just scary. You decide.

From
Cute Overload, The Curse of Monkula

I can’t actually decide if this is cute, or just a monkey biting another monkey in an act of random violence.

Thanks, Jolaine!

Seriously fishy characters 6: The Wahwee

At thirty feet, the Australia Wahwee is possibly the biggest creature featured on this blog to date–but hold onto your seats, it won’t be our last supersized buddy!

The Wahwee isn’t technically a demon, but he’s got six legs, a froggy head and a massive serpent tail and frankly, who’s going to argue with him?

This amphibian lives in deep water-holes in Australia and will dig himself a burrow in the muddy banks where he will live happy as a clam. Part of the reason for this is that his wife and offspring live elsewhere.

The Wahwee will eat everything in sight. Three or four dozen humans are just an appetizer for him.

According to R.H. Mathews, Aboriginal wise men go to the Wahwee to bring back new songs for the tribe. First, the wise man paints himself with red ochre before swimming into the Wahwee’s burrow. The monster then teaches the wise man the new song, repeating it until the human can sing it by memory.

I’m just noticing how many of these water spirits are associated with creativity and inspiration. Maybe it’s because the human creative spirit ebbs and flows like water.

Sources

• R. H. Mathews, Folk-Lore, vol. 20 (1909), pp. 485-87.

A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels and Other Subversive Spirits
by Carol K. Mack, Dinah Mack

The gift that keeps on giving: Cursed items

Don’t know what to get your sweetie for Christmas? Try one of these cursed items.

That Voodoo That You Do 3: Jumbie/Duppy

No, not the drink, I’m talking about another kind of spirit.

A jumbie is a general term for a spirit, but also the specific term for a restless spirit of the dead. Caucasian cultures usually portray ghosts as white, but the Caribbean jumbie manifests as a black shadowy figure. (The term duppy refers to the same thing.)

The aspects and ways of dealing with the jumbie vary in different Caribbean cultures. In some parts of Montserrat, there’s a jumbie dance (Not this one, but cool anyway. (Notice the people on the stilts in the background of that dance? Check this out.)), which goes on until someone is possessed by a jumbie.

To deal with a jumbie, leave a pair of shoes outside your house. It will spend the night trying to put them on (but they don’t have feet, so it won’t succeed — but still, one appreciates the fashion sense).

Jumbies/duppies can be vampiric, as well. Bob Marley’s song Duppy Conqueror is actually talking about his human leeches, though.

Sources

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumbie
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duppy

The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters
by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Vampires we know and love #5: Abchanchu

Think vampires are all the same? Think again! Vampires come in more flavors than Baskin-Robbins ice cream. So, this special DotW feature, Vampires we know and love, spotlights different kinds of bloodsucking fiends from around the world.

Abchanchu

Suppose you happen to be traveling through Bolivia and you find an old man who seems to have lost his way. He looks kind and harmless. Should you help him?

Don’t do it. In this case, being a good Samaritan might cost you your O-Negative. Oh sure, he’s a dottering old guy now, but just wait until you escort him back him. Then it’s all with the ‘I want to suck your blood.’

Best to just keep walking. If possible, with an amulet that has a drop of garlic oil in it.

• Rosemary Guiley, Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters, Checkmark Books, 2005

The apartment lease from Hell

Somehow, I pictured a contract that aligned you with the forces of darkness would have to be signed in blood…

View… the apartment lease from Hell

Thanks, Lawmonster!

The Greeks sure love their vampires, part 3: Keres

There are a lot of vampires in Greek folklore. In fact, where we have one name for undead creatures who inhabit corpses and suck the blood of the living, they have a crapload of them. I’ll feature one of them today, the Keres, who just love to steal corpses (although why they’d want to is beyond me).

Keres

I’m cheating here. Keres are not exactly vampires. What they are is spirits of the dead that escape from the jars that the Greeks used to use as coffins (I’m going to write something about Greek death rituals pretty soon. It’s interesting stuff).

Keres aren’t that interested in sucking blood–that’s the part that makes them not vampires. Technically, they’re ghouls. What they love to do is to steal corpses. Frankly, I don’t want to think about what the keres do with those dead bodies. Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure it’s not sunshine and rainbows.

Now just because keres are more interested in the arteries of the dearly departed doesn’t mean we should invite them into our homes with open arms. You see, keres spread disease faster than the most flea-bitten plague rat.

Luckily there is a preventative measure you can take that will keep keres out of your humble abode. Just paint tar or something equally sticky on the doorframe of the entrance to your house. If any keres tries to get in, they will get caught in the stickiness like one of those fly strips with disgusting dried fly corpses on it.

Sources

The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters
by Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Werewolf dance

Today’s post is dedicated to the hardworking women of the RWA Board of Directors, who took swift and decisive action this week to protect writers.

Well.

Done.

Go watch this. Like, right now.

Seriously fishy characters 5: Kappa

Yay! A Japanese demon!

Kappas are demons that inhabit swamps, marshes, rivers, any fresh body of water, really. They look kinda scaly, might have a turtle shell, and are about the size of a ten year old kid. Some of them have bird beaks or duck bills.

Their skulls are concave on top, and the depression is full of water. This lets them move around on land without drying out. So, if you want to hurt a kappa you see on land, bow politely. The kappa’s innate sense of propriety will force it to return the bow and the water will dump out. It’s not clear if this kills a kappa, but it definitely slows it down.

Apparently there’s another way to get rid of them. Or anyone. See photo.

Try the bowing thing.

The word ‘kappa’ means ‘river child’ and it is possibly the only demon with a sushi roll named after it.

That’s because kappas have two favorite foods: small, fat, luscious children, and cucumbers. Luckily, the kappamaki sushi roll goes for the last one, not the first.

In fact, kappas will do just about anything for a cucumber. They’re not bad folks, really, despite luring (mostly) kids and (sometimes) adults into water where they drown. And despite the fact they then enter that person’s body through their bum, suck out their guts and eat their liver.

Really, they just want to get along. And eat cucumbers if they can’t chow down on a kid.

In fact, kappas can be very helpful to humans. First you’ve got to make friends with them (a cucumber comes in handy here) and get them to agree to do stuff. One of their more sterling traits–besides the bowing thing–is that they always keep their promises, scout’s honor. None of this ‘looking for loopholes’ that’s so common in dealing with demons.

Once you’re friendly with a kappa, it will do all kinds of things for you (probably for cucumbers), like irrigate your crops and teach you how to set broken bones.

Kappamaki

P.S.: “Kappa” is also the Japanese term for rain gear.

Sources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa_(folklore)
  

A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels and Other Subversive Spirits
by Carol K. Mack, Dinah Mack